


bullets

by nonbinaryezrabridger



Category: Alien vs Predator (2004)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Everyone Lives/Nobody Dies, F/F, Fix-It, don’t copy to other sites, or everyone dies except adele and alexa oops
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-02
Updated: 2019-09-02
Packaged: 2020-10-05 06:11:30
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 4
Words: 3,750
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20484185
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nonbinaryezrabridger/pseuds/nonbinaryezrabridger
Summary: Adele shoots fast enough, just barely. The thing that was aiming for her face goes thudding to the floor, leaking greenish liquid that must be blood. She stares at it horror for a moment before a scream tears her attention away.While she was looking at the thing, the other eggs had been busy. Next to her, Thomas slides down the wall, one of the things attached to his face, pulsing grotesquely. She looks around the room, feeling terror growing in her, and sees that everyone else has also had one attached to their face.[Adele lives AU]





	1. battle

**Author's Note:**

> tw for this chapter: canon typical gore and death

\-------

Adele shoots fast enough, just barely. The thing that was aiming for her face goes thudding to the floor, leaking greenish liquid that must be blood. She stares at it horror for a moment before a scream tears her attention away.

While she was looking at the thing, the other eggs had been busy. Next to her, Thomas slides down the wall, one of the things attached to his face, pulsing grotesquely. She looks around the room, feeling terror growing in her, and sees that everyone else has also had one attached to their face.

One or two crawl along the walls of the room across from her and she takes aim, sighting down the barrel and firing two precise shots, sending them both squealing to the floor. Then she kneels down and directs her attention to Thomas.

He’s perfectly limp, motionless except for the creature attached to him, which curls a tail around his neck and shudders as if it’s doing something down where she can’t see. She hisses out a breath between her teeth and tries not to scream.

Come on Adele, you’ve been in bad situations before.

She crosses her arms over her chest, a defensive movement that belays how truly afraid she is. She can feel herself shaking and tries to stop herself, to no avail. She shakes her head, thinking to herself:

Not like this, never before. Not like this.

Finally, she decides it’s time for action. She reaches out slowly, hesitatingly, and curls her fingers around one of the thing’s legs. She yanks, and the thing gurgles, but only tightens its grip. She sighs, releasing it and just staring at it.

Time for more intense measures.

She pulls out the gun that had saved her earlier and sticks its barrel up, under the things’s body, so it’s pointing away from Thomas’s face. It’s not safe by any means, but she’ll be damned if she’ll leave this thing on him any longer. She angles her body away and pulls the trigger.

She’s showered in body parts and the thing’s blood, which almost immediately starts to burn through her coat. She struggles to take it off quickly, before it eats through her shirt. Then she turns back to look at Thomas. His face is free, although there’s something protruding from his lips. She reaches out carefully and pulls at it and it slides out, a long strand of the thing’s body that has been stuck down his throat.

She quietly congratulates herself on getting the thing off. She has enough ammo, she can do everyone else too. But then Thomas coughs weakly and she crouches next to him, pressing a finger to his pulse. It’s slow, and only getting slower. She feels it slow until it stops, unable to do anything to help him. 

God damn it! It killed him because I took it off.

She can’t help but pace around the room, looking at all the prone bodies, the disgusting motion of those things on their faces. These people are helpless and depending on her, but what can she do? 

Just then, there’s a disgusting squelching coming from where Micheal lies. She runs to his side to find that the thing has fallen off and is now convulsing, until it slows and stops moving. She hopes it’s dead, but puts a bullet in it just in case. Then she checks on Micheal. He coughs and blinks, his face wet with the thing’s juices. Adele puts a hand on his shoulder and tries not to look as frightened as she feels.

“Sir are you alright?”

Micheal groans and looks down at the thing that had been attached to him. Then he looks back up at Adele, his eyes wet with tears.

“Adele, you have to kill me.”

Adele feels her heart stop, her mind slurring with confusion.

“What the hell do you mean?”

Michael features weakly at the thing as he speaks:

“I read a report on these things when I was in the marine corps. They’re aliens, they grow inside humans. There’s one inside me right now. If you don’t kill me, it’s going to mature and kill me anyway, and then probably kill you too. So I’m asking you, no begging you, to kill me.”

Adele stutters, feeling sick to her stomach.

“Sir, no. I can’t—“

He looks her in the eyes, in a way he never has before and grabs her hand holding the gun and pulls it up until the barrel is pressed against his forehead.

“Do it.”

She shakes her head, horror seething in her stomach like vomit. 

“Do it!”

She pulls the trigger.

She curls in on herself, pressing her forehead to the floor, and just sobs. That is, until she sees it.

Something is moving under Micheal’s skin.

She screams and flails backwards, aiming shakily and firing until the thing under his skin stops moving. Then she stands, her legs shaking so hard she thinks she might collapse, and shoots every last one of the damn things, even the ones attached to people. 

Then, frantically, she looks around the room until she finds the only exit that hasn’t closed up when the pyramid changed: a small tunnel leading back towards the hole that leads up to the surface. She has to crouch to crawl through it but she does so gladly, leaving the room full of bodies behind. 

She reloads her gun as she crawls, though she doesn’t run into anything else. Just the dark shadows and her fear making her jump at nothing. Finally, she makes it back to the base camp. She looks back at the pyramid, weighing her options. The rest of her team is still in there, should she go back for them? Or should she go back up to the surface and try to get support first?

She likes the second option better. Better to storm into the pyramid with a team of armed men then all by herself. So she grabs a rope and starts the long climb up the hole.

————-

The hunter is fighting the serpent, leaping at it with all his graceful danger. Alexa is pulling at the chain she’s noticed attached to the serpent. Behind her, the giant canister teeters over the edge. If she can get the chain attached to the canister, it will pull the serpent over the edge into the water. Which she hopes will kill it. It’s got to kill it, right? 

But the chain is whipping around as the serpent fights and Alexa struggles to pull it back. She’s almost got it when she feels a brush of air and looks up. There’s a person there, wrapped up in a heavy coat, and even with her face white with terror, Alexa recognizes Rousseau.

“Rousseau? How did you—?”

The blond woman shakes her head, grabbing the chain alongside Alexa.

“No time to talk now. Let’s just get this done.”

They pull in unison and together, they tie the chain around the canister. Rousseau smiles, a bright flash in the arctic night, and Alexa feels herself warm with affection for her. She smiles back before turning back to the fight.

The hunter goes flying, and the canister has stopped its tumble. Their plan has hit a snag already. Rousseau is staring at the fight with wide eyes, but Alexa begins to scramble around the debris, looking for something with which to wedge the canister over the edge. She finds a shovel and begins to push. Rousseau notices what she’s doing and finds her own lever before starting to push as well.

After a long moment, the canister creams and toppled over the edge, bouncing its way down to the ice cold water below. The chain goes taunt and begins to drag the serpent towards the water as well. It struggles, clawing at the ground around it, but can’t stop itself from falling. They watch it go thrashing down into the water, where it quickly disappears into the blackness.

Rousseau slumps over, pumping her fist celebratorily in the air. Alexa grins at her, still not quite believing she alive. Just then, she sees the large figure of the hunter stalking towards them. She’s glad to see him, but Rousseau reacts with fear, drawing her gun and aiming. Alexa jumps into action, pushing her gun arm down and stepping between the two as she yells:

“No!”

Rousseau hesitates, her fingers twitching around the gun.

“What the hell do you mean no? That’s a fucking alien!”

Alexa takes a step back towards Rousseau and pats her carefully on the shoulder.

“I know, but he helped me. Protected me, even. We’re partners, I think.”

Rousseau shakes her head in disbelief, muttering something to herself. Alexa turns back to the hunter, who is reach up and unlocking something under his face. To her surprise it peels away; it was a mask. Underneath is a green, scaly skinned face, with human eyes but a decidedly alien mouth. Behind her, Rousseau curses when she sees him.

He reaches into his belt and pulls out the finger he had removed from the alien, which is still leaking acid. He reaches towards her and she realizes about what he’s about to do. She’s not excited about being marked with a permanent scar by an alien, but nor does she want to refuse and anger him. So she just lets it happen, wincing at the pain as he traces the same symbol he drew on his mask into her flesh. 

He pulls away and then looks at Rousseau consideringly. Rousseau backs away, her hands up defensively.

“Oh hell no.”

Alexa feels fear spring up in her stomach again; she hadn’t come this far just to have Rousseau get killed now. So she puts on her calmest, most assured guide voice. 

“Rousseau, let him do it. Let’s not die now, after all that, huh?”

That strikes a chord and Alexa sees something dark flash through Rousseau’s eyes.

“Fine.”

She juts her head up to give the hunter easy access and he too traces the symbol into her cheek, the opposite side of Alexa’s. She huffs out a laugh; they’re a matching set. Both going to be eternally scarred by this encounter, both mentally and physically. 

Suddenly the hunter collapses, and Alexa is reminded of how many wounds he must have. He’s so massive, so frightening, that it’s hard to think about him as wounded. Still, Rousseau gasps and steps closes, staring down at him.

“What do we do now?”

Before Alexa can answer, there’s a rush of wind and a bright light blazing into their faces. She looks up to trace the outlines of what must be an alien ship, hovering over the ice. It’s side splits open and figures appear, walking down the gangplank towards them. Rousseau draws her gun and aims, but quickly realizes it won’t do them any good. There are too many of them.

Four of them focus on the fallen hunter, lifting him and carrying him back into the ship. In the meantime, one of them stares at the two humans. He looks a little different than the rest, with spikes protruding from the edges of his face. His eyes focus on the brand on Alexa’s cheek and she hopes it will be enough to keep them safe.

Sure enough, the alien turns away from them and retreats back into the ship. The gangplank rises and seals, shutting off the bright light, leaving them once again in the darkness. They watch the ship leave in silence and only once they’re gone does Alexa speak:

“We have to get back to the icebreaker or we’ll die out here.”

Rousseau rolls her eyes, huffing out sarcastically.

“More potential death. What’s new?”

Alexa smiles wanly, knowing how much the other woman is struggling to hold it together, just like she is. She feels broken, like she’s no longer the person she once was, maybe not even a person at all anymore. All she has is the instinct to survive.

She takes off walking and Rousseau follows, heading towards the trucks that brought them here. Alexa looks back at Rousseau and asks:

“Do you know, is anyone still alive at base camp?”

Rousseau’s eyes go mournful. Alexa is suddenly reminded of all the death she’s seen in the past few hours, one of which occurred at her own hands, and it feels like a punch in the stomach. She has to force herself to keep walking. Rousseau responds:

“No one. They’re all dead. How bout the pyramid?”

Alexa shakes her head.

“The same. No one left.”

They digest that for a moment before Alexa continues:

“Then all that matters is getting out of here.”

They make it back to the truck and make it inside. The cabin is marginally heated but Alexa still shivers with only her shirt to protect her from the icy cold outside. She may have the beginnings of hypothermia. Rousseau noticed her shaking and begins puller her coat off. Alexa wants to protest but she knows sharing the coat is the right thing to do. 

Rousseau gets the coat off and wraps it around Alexa’s shoulders, her hands lingering for a moment on Alexa’s arms. Her grip is strong and comforting and Alexa wants to lean into it. But she shakes the feeling off and puts the truck into drive. 

As they drive off into the night, Rousseau looks back at where the alien ship had hovered and laughs.

“No ones going to believe us, you know.”

————


	2. accusations

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> no tw for this chapter!

————-

“What do you mean you two were the only survivors?”

Alexa sighs and once again tries to explain with the story they’ve come up with that does not include aliens.

“There was a crevasse. My team fell in. We then accidentally triggered a collapse of the whole cavern. Only Rousseau and I made it out in time.”

The man across the desk huffs, looking at her with a mixture of disbelief and disdain.

“You would think with all the money Mr. Wayland paid for you to be his guide, I would have thought you would have done a better job.”

Alexa sputters, rage swirling in her stomach.

“Excuse me?”

Before she can gather her words, Rousseau comes to her defense:

“With all due respect, sir, how dare you? Alexa did her best to keep us all alive. Without her, I would be dead too.”

The man behind the desk glares, obviously not a fan of Rousseau speaking up. Then he spins his chair away from them with a dismissive gesture.

“Very well. You can go.”

They leave without complaint, both looking glad to be out of the stuffy office. Alexa leans against the wall and looks Rousseau over before speaking:

“Thanks for that, Rousseau.”

Rousseau snorts.

“What little good it did. And hey, call me Adele.”

Alexa smiles at her, feeling butterflies in her stomach in that way that means she definitely has a crush.

“Adele.”

———————


	3. aftermath

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> tw for this chapter: some discussions of death, Sebastian's in particular.

———————

Alexa paces around her small quarters on the ice breaker, unable to force herself to lie down in bed again. She had tried to sleep, but ended up staring up at the ceiling as the faces of all her dead comrades spun through her vision. Sebastian particularly haunts her. Had he really been a lost cause? Had she really been right to kill him? Even if she had been, how can she live with what she had done?

Before her thoughts can spiral any further, there’s a knock at her door. She jerks in surprise; who would be coming to visit her? But she already knows even before she opens the door and sees her face. Sure enough, standing there is Adele. Her hair is mussed, flattened on one side as if she’d just woken up, and she’s smiling wryly.

“Hey there, hot stuff.”

Alexa isn’t a blusher, but her stomach still flips at the compliment. The joking tone softens the attraction slightly, but it’s still there.

“Hey Adele. Want to come in?”

Adele smiles wider and teases:

“No, I came here just to stand in the hallway.”

Alexa smirks back.

“Fine then.”

And shuts the door in her face.

There’s a surprised squawk and then laughter on the other side. Alexa pulls the door open again and joins Adele in laughing. Finally they’re both doubled over, hands on their stomachs, laughing until they can’t breathe. Once they’ve finally calmed down, Alexa gasps out:

“I needed that.”

They both sober suddenly, that horrible tension running through them returning. Adele speaks quietly, sadly:

“Yeah.”

Alexa steps back into the room and gesture for Adele to follow. She’s suddenly glad she’s kept her quarters clean rather than leaving them a mess like she usually prefers. She pulls out one of the hard, uncomfortable chairs that had come with the room and offers it to Adele. She takes it gladly, sitting down with her legs spread confidently. She sits in a way traditionally reserved for men and it makes Alexa’s body heat. It’s a welcome distraction from the swirling thoughts of death and blood and aliens inside her head. 

After a moment of comfortable silence, Adele speaks:

“So, uh, you doing okay?”

Alexa can’t help it, she laughs. And then she buries her face in her hands trying not to cry. Adele laughs too, and continues:

“I know. Silly question, right?”

Alexa nods, her throat choked up with tears, and responds:

“Yeah.”

There’s silence, then the shifting of fabric, and suddenly there’s a hand rubbing comforting circles on her back. Adele does that for a long moment before gently muttering:

“We’re going to be okay, Lex.”

Lex looks up, not feeling the urge to hide any longer. She feels perfectly safe with Adele.

“We are. I promise, Adele. We will be okay.”

Adele smiles and lets her head drop until their foreheads are touching, her breath gently brushing across Alexa’s cheeks. Alexa feels a wave of warmth crash over her. Despite everything that’s happened, everything feels right when she’s around Adele. They stay pressed together for a long moment before Adele pulls away and asks:

“So about sleeping...”

Alexa nods yes to the unasked question.

“Yes, you can stay here.”

Adele laughs and collapses back across the bed in relief.

“Thank you, my nightmares have been terrible.”

Alexa laughs too and lies down next to her.

“You managed to fall asleep? I hadn’t even got that far.”

Adele chuckles softly, her eyes tracing Alexa’s face.

“Can we cuddle?”

Alexa grins and throws herself softly at the other woman, pulling her into an embrace and tangling their legs together before laying her head on her chest. Adele huffs out:

“Guess that was a yes.”

Alexa lets her eyes slip shut, finally feeling safe enough to try sleeping.

“Go to sleep, silly.”

\--------


	4. plan

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> no tw for this chapter

\------

Alexa is in the ice breaker’s small gym, running on the single treadmill, when she sees Adele enter the room. She’s dressed in gym clothes, including short shorts that shows off her muscular thighs. Alexa gives her an appreciative once over before waving hello. Addele waves back before taking her place on an elliptical. They work out in silence together for a few minutes, giving Alexa time to think.

They’ve been sleeping together every night, and when they had tried to separate, had only found more nightmares waiting for them. So they’re pretty close by now, having spent every night since the incident wrapped up in each other’s arms. And Alexa knows she’s not the only one throwing appreciative glances at the other woman. Adele stares at her quite often and quite obviously, that softness to her gaze that makes Alexa’s stomach fill with butterflies. So really, are they as close as they want to be, or do they want to be closer? 

Alexa is started out of her thoughts by Adele’s voice:

“Hey, you want to spar?”

Alexa considers that; she has trained in self defense and low level tae kwon do, but she doesn’t usually spar. Still, the way Adele is excitedly grinning at her, she gives in anyways.

“Sure, just go easy on me, alright?”

Adele throws her head back and laughs, her eyes gleaming.

“No promises.”

They make their way over to a small padded area, perfect for sparring. They set their stuff down and then settle in across from each other in defensive postions. They stare at each toehr for a long moment before Adele throws herslef forward, coming at Alexa with a burst of power. Alexa tries to dodge but is quickly grabbed and flipped, landing on the padded floor. Adele looks down at her, concerned, and asks:

“Are you okay?”

Without answering and without warning, Alexa kicks out, sending Adele toppeling to the floor, landing on her ass. The blonde woman yelps before laughing:

“So that’s how you want to play it?”

And then they’re a blur of motion, grappling across the floor, both struggling to pin the other. After a long fight, Alexa finds herself pinned to the floor, arms above her head, straddled across the hips by Adele’s powerful form. Despite the aggressiveness of the pin, Adele’s grip on her wrists is gentle. She’s panting and grinning down at Alexa, obviously overjoyed by their match. Aelxa grins back up, a plan forming in her mind, and asks:

“You gonna let go?”

Adele does instantly, freeing her arms, and Alexa surges up until their chests are pressed together, their hips interlocked. Their faces are almost touching and Alexa gets a good look at Adele’s face. At first there’s surprise but it quickly turns to happiness. She grins and speaks:

“Whatcha doing, Lex?”

Alexa grins back, tilting her head to throw her hair over her shoulder.

“I don’t know, I was thinking about kissing you.”

Adele’s eyes shine brighter and she licks her lips, a flash of bright pink tongue.

“Be my guest.”

Alexa leans up, slotting their lips together and kissing her gently. Adele kisses back eagerly, deepening the kiss.her hand comes up to tangle in Alexa’s hair, tugging softly on the strands. Then, slowly she pulls away. Alexa makes an unhappy noise and Adele smiles affectionately at her.

“Think we should take this back to the room?” 

Alexa pouts but agrees:

“Probably a good idea.”

Adele stands up suddenly, reaching over to grab her stuff, and then power walks towards the door. 

“I’ll race you!”

Alexa scrambles to stand and grab her stuff as well, yelling:

“Hey, that’s not fair! You have a head start!”

Before taking off down the hallway after her.

\---------


End file.
